Dickerman: Guidebooks, maps cover the best N.H. trails and peaks

Sunday

May 31, 2009 at 3:15 AM

Guidebooks and maps, which are an essential tool in the planning of almost any hike in New Hampshire, are hardly in short supply, as any visit to a respectable Granite State bookstore will attest. There are guides and maps to just about anywhere and everything, so it's not as easy as it would seem to find exactly what you are looking for.

With that in mind, here's a brief rundown on what I consider to be the best and most useful products out there today.

When it comes to New Hampshire hiking guides, the standard-bearer for more than a century now has been the AMC White Mountain Guide, now in its 28th edition. No guide covers more trails or more terrain than this venerable hiker's bible, and even though many folks find the physical size and weight of the book somewhat of a burden, it's still the best of the best and is a "must have" book for any serious White Mountain outdoors enthusiast.

Two other excellent guides also published by the Appalachian Mountain Club are its AMC Guide to Southern New Hampshire and its AMC Best Day Hikes in the White Mountains. The southern New Hampshire guide is a superb companion to the White Mountain Guide, covering most of the trails in the Granite State south of the Whites. This includes the trails on Mount Cardigain in central New Hampshire, Monadnock in the southwestern part of the state, the Lakes Region, and Pawtuckaway State Park.

The Day Hikes book, meanwhile, is a family-oriented guide and includes descriptions to the very best kid-friendly hikes in the Whites. If you are planning a family vacation to the Whites and could pick one hiking guide to take with you, this would be the one to choose.

Perhaps the best introductory guide to the state's most popular hiking region is the White Mountains Map Book published by Map Adventures and co-written by Steve Bushey and Angela Faeth. Now in its third edition (2009), the Map Book offers an attractive package featuring a 64-page guide to more than 75 trails and a two-sided waterproof map covering almost the entire White Mountains region.

The Map Adventures map, which is also sold separately in a slightly different format, is considered by many to be the best and easiest-to-use map covering the Whites.

A few other noteworthy guidebooks that I'd be remiss in ignoring include:

— The New Hiking the Monadnock Region by Joe Adamowicz and published by University Press of New England. This guide describes 44 nature walks and hikes in the Monadnock Region ands includes many useful maps and illustrations.

— Waterfalls of the White Mountains by Bruce, Doreen, and Daniel Bolnick. This long popular guide covers 30 trails leading to more than 100 scenic waterfalls in the mountains. (Given all the wet weather we've had of late, making a waterfall one's hiking destination would certainly be appropriate right now).

— Scudder's White Mountain Viewing Guide by Brent Scudder. This unusual guide features descriptions and panoramic sketches from 54 summits, mostly in the Whites. Also included, however, are sketches from a number of grand summits elsewhere in New Hampshire, including Monadnock, Cardigain and Kearsarge.

— The 4000-Footers of the White Mountains by Steven D. Smith and yours truly. The new (2008) expanded edition of this guide to New Hampshire's 48 highest peaks features historical timelines, geographical information, and detailed trail descriptions to all the major summits.

For those who like to identify plants and animal tracks seen while out on the trail, here are a few other recommended titles that I think you will find useful:

— Certainly Wildflowers of the White Mountains by John Hession and Valerie Michaud is the most compact and best illustrated such guide available, with its hundreds of color photographs.

— The AMC Field Guide to New England Alpine Summits by Nancy Slack and Allison Bell is another superb guide, with its focus primarily on the Presidential Range peaks of New Hampshire and the highest summits of Maine and Vermont.

— Scats and Tracks of the Northeast by James Halfpenny and Mammal Tracks and Sign of the Northeast by Diane Gibbons are probably the best guides on tracking and animal sign, while Lichens Above Treeline by Ralph Pope is a useful guide to the lichen species of the northeastern mountains.

— One final guide that deserves mention is the Field Guide to New Hampshire Firetowers co-authored by Iris Baird and Chris Haartz. This guide is not as widely distributed as most of the other guides that I've listed, but it's unique because of its subject matter and the historical information that is included within its pages. If you can track down a copy, it's well worth its modest retail price.

When it comes to trail maps to the White Mountains region, you'll be hard pressed to top the Map Adventures waterproof map that I mentioned previously. Still, there are plenty of excellent alternatives, including any of the pocket maps included with the AMC White Mountain Guide. The AMC maps, produced by staff cartographer Larry Garland of Jackson, cover four distinct areas of the Whites - the Presidential Range, the Franconia-Pemigewasset Region, Crawford Notch and the Sandwich Range to the south, and the Carter Range-Evans Notch area - and all are available in separate waterproof tyvek versions.

The Wilderness Map Company of Twin Mountain has also produced a fine set of five handsomely priced maps covering areas such as Mount Washington, Crawford Notch, Franconia Notch, and the Kancamagus Highway. The fifth map in the series is probably my personal favorite, however, as it follows the Appalachian Trail through the Whites from one AMC hut to another.

Several of the active trail organizations in the Whites and elsewhere have also published maps specific to their regions. These would include the Randolph Mountain Club's map to the Northern Peaks of the Presidential Range and the paths of the Randolph Valley; the Wonalancet Out Door Club's map and guide to the Sandwich Range in the southern White Mountains, the Chatham Trail Association's map of the Cold River Valley and Evans Notch region on the Maine-New Hampshire border, and the Waterville Valley Athletic and Improvement Association's map to the hiking trails of Waterville Valley.

Mike Dickerman is a longtime hiking enthusiast, award-winning columnist, and author or co-author of nine books related to the White Mountains region of New Hampshire. He lives in Littleton.

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